Madhur Bhandarkar finds Kareena fabulous for Heroine

The shooting of Madhur Bhandarkar's much-anticipated Kareena Kapoor-starrer Heroine took off amid much fanfare on Saturday with the film's hero Arjun Rampal celebrating his birthday by cutting a cake on the sets.

Madhur, however, was in a sombre mood while posting the first day's shoot on his blog. He sent out a prayer for victims of the 26/11 terror attack.

"Today I start shooting for my next project, Heroine. Am I excited, nervous or ecstatic? Actually, I am very calm because movie making is one thing that comes very naturally to me. I am happy for sure, as always, to be on the next project and work after months of brainstorming. But my day has begun with a silent prayer for the victims of 26/11," the blog read.

While Kareena and Arjun gave the first shots for the film on Saturday at Mumbai's Film City, also present were UTV head honchos Ronnie Screwvala and Siddharth Roy Kapur, who have co-produced the film along with Madhur.

"What I could say is different about Heroine as compared to all my other movies is that it is a bigger movie. It has a larger span, more characters, more costumes...a journey that revolves around an actress' life and showbiz," Madhur said.

The film traces the journey of Mahhi Khanna, played by Kareena, to stardom and all that follows. While Kareena was the first choice for the role, she had turned it down because she was reportedly not comfortable doing certain scenes in the film.

Madhur had then famously signed Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan for the film and even grandly announced the project at this year's Cannes film festival as Ash posed for photo-ops at the Riviera.

However, Ash backed out of the film because of her pregnancy as she would not have been able to film a lot of intense scenes which her role demanded. She even shot for a fortnight before pulling out. Madhur had thought of shelving the project before Kareena agreed to take over.

Finally, after making due changes to suit Kareena's demands, Madhur re-started the project from scratch with Kareena.

"The fabulous Kareena Kapoor is playing the role of the protagonist. Both of us have been wanting to work together for a while now. Finally we are, and I am sure we are going to have a blast during the shoot," he posted further.

On day one, Kareena and Arjun reportedly did a special photo shoot session with ace lensman Dabboo Ratnani.

Arjun plays a superstar who is in love with Mahhi. The film also stars Divya Dutta.

One of the highlights of the movie is apparently the 130 costumes that Kareena gets to wear in the film.

Her wardrobe has been designed by her designer buddy Manish Malhotra. By the looks of the three dresses that Kareena wore for the photoshoot, she's going to set the screens on fire.

A day before he started shooting, Madhur paid obeisance at Mumbai's Siddhivinayak Temple Temple and sought divine blessings for his ambitious project.